In 2009 we launch our celebratory 10th anniversary ballet tour, travelling the length and breadth of Britain bringing ballet to a venue near you. Producer Ellen Kent has been responsible for bringing to the UK and Ireland much of the Eastern European ballet seen here in the last 10 years.

From her base at the Historic Dockyard in Chatham, Ellen has collaborated with foreign ballet companies to bring Britain the best of Russian ballet. 2009 sees new productions forged by a brand new business relationship between Ellen Kent and the Ballet Theatre in Kharkov, Ukraine. New Russian ballet stars are touring Britain as well as the much loved and revered leading couple Kristina and Alexei Terentiev. Kristina was the Grand Prix winner of the International Dance competition in Vienna in 2007, won ‘Grand Prix’ at the International Ballet Competition in Istanbul in 2008 and won the gold medal at Varna this year alongside Alexei who won ‘Best Partner’. Kristina has been signed up to represent ‘Sansha’ for three years and is considered to be one of the best ballet dancers in the world.

In Autumn 1999 Ellen Kent made her first foray into the world of ballet, with a tour of Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty and has since also toured Coppelia, Grigorovich’s Nutcracker and Romeo & Juliet.

Ellen’s first ballet company was from Chisinau, Moldova. After the initial success of Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, Ellen looked for something different and spectacular to bring to Britain. On a cold January day, Ellen sat in the Chisinau Opera House (where both the opera and ballet are based) and was approached by the Ballet Master. He asked her if she would like to see a production of Nutcracker. What unfolded on the stage was completely magical. A colourful, powerful performance which Ellen knew British audiences would love. It was explained that this production of Nutcracker was the famous 1966 Bolshoi production of Yuri Grigorovich’s Nutcracker. This production had not been seen in Britain since the 1970’s and Ellen immediately saw the potential in a return tour.

Yuri Grigorovich was the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet for 31 years and his very own version of Nutcracker was given to Mihai Caftanat, artistic director of the Chisinau National Ballet, as a gift to the Moldovan people. Due to Ellen’s connection to the Chisinau National Ballet, Ellen contacted Yuri Grigorovich and set up a meeting.

Ellen flew to Istanbul to meet Yuri Grigorovich and take up the chance to learn from the ‘Genius of the Bolshoi’. Yuri Grigorovich was working with the Istanbul National Ballet and Ellen stayed with him and his wife, to broach the subject of a British tour of Nutcracker. Yuri Grigorovich agreed for this monumental tour to happen and even lent Ellen his own Lighting Director. Grigorovich’s Nutcracker was first toured in Britain by Ellen Kent in 2000 and was greeted with fantastic reviews from the national press and proved to be the most popular ballet in Ellen’s touring repertoire. Ellen is the only producer with the exclusive rights to tour Grigorovich’s Nutcracker in Britain.

The ballet has a huge fan base with some of the best dancers performing on the number one theatre circuit in Britain. As well as bringing pleasure to her ballet audiences Ellen has also ensured that children throughout Britain have had the chance to take part in the ballet. Every tour we contact dance schools to give their children a chance to perform on stage alongside the professionals. For the past 8 years Ellen has built up a strong relationship with Stagecoach Theatre Schools and in 1996 set up a relationship with the children’s charity ‘Make–A-Wish Foundation UK’. Giving children a chance to become a ballet dancer for one magical night has been a great success and Make-A-Wish Foundation UK has had many of their wish children included in our ballets.

For the celebratory 2009 ballet tour Ellen is touring something special. Ellen has forged a new relationship with the Ballet Theatre of Kharkov to bring you completely new productions. Kharkov is the second biggest city in Ukraine, on the borders of Russia, and famed for its successful Soviet past. When Ellen visited Kharkov to see their new production of Coppelia, she was impressed by the scale and quality of the production. The theatre was built to make an impression, staging shows for the largest audiences in Eastern Europe. The city is dominated by vast public squares, enormous parks, large statues of Lenin and is adorned with lavish Soviet architecture. The theatre houses huge dance studios and a large ballet workshop with 25 people permanently employed to make and repair the costumes, sets and wigs and to help create new productions.

This tour brings together ballet dancers from all over Eastern Europe and Russia ensuring a very high standard of ballet. Ellen left the Ukraine having experienced one of the best productions of Coppelia she had ever seen. The new costumes, sets and impressive cast guarantee that Ellen’s celebratory ballet tour will bring you an exciting programme destined to deliver a spectacular night out.

After ten years touring ballet Ellen is still at the cutting edge of the business. Ellen ensures her audiences see fresh, spectacular, high quality ballet and would not have it any other way.